Critically Endangered
I am listing these as critically endangered, even though nobody seems to believe they are still around. They are presumed extinct, but the IUCN has not updated their status yet. They are at risk from invasive species, avian malaria from introduced mosquitoes, cats, and unfortunately much of their remaining habitat was seriously damaged in hurricane Iniki back in 1992. They have not been seen since 1996. Although I am calling this the Kaua'i nukupu'u, it could easily be the O'ahu or Maui nukupu'u. They all look very much alike. Sadly, they as well are extinct or presumed extinct. The O'ahu went extinct in the 1830's, and the Maui was also last seen in the 1990's. There was a giant one but it went extinct in prehistoric times apparently. I don't know what it looked like obviously.
I try to do a variety of poses for birds especially, but I will admit that I prefer up close views. Well, really I would probably be ok with just doing up close paintings of all the animals. It is hard to get detail in this small of a painting unless you do that. It would be boring if I only did a profile picture of everything I'm painting for the year. I suppose a profile portrait of a worm wouldn't be all that exciting either, and there isn't much difference with snails except in their shells, which wouldn't show in a close-up profile. So, I try to just opt for whatever seems right and is different from the last one I did. This is something that didn't even cross my mind when I started the project. How many ways can you paint an animal when you purposefully don't have it interacting with another one or background wasn't a challenge I realized I'd be dealing with. Facing right, facing left, facing forward, 3/4 view, full body, just the face, somewhere in-between, there aren't enough options to make every painting totally different from the others. I do try very hard though to keep things interesting. I try not to have say 6 in a row with a green background, or with the paper in landscape format, or with the animal facing right. Hopefully it keeps things from feeling at all monotonous for you all.